Saturday, October 3, 2009

When the Wall Street whiz kids, the doctors, the engineers or what are otherwise called the cream of the society tend to think of Rahul Gandhi as the deliverer of India's destiny, we know that the secular indoctrination that begins with our primary schools has worked wonders. When our children set out of schools the only names with the highest recall value are Gandhi and Nehru. That is further reinforced by breathless secular cheerleaders breaking us news and non-news alike 24x7. And the result is, the Mahatma and the other Gandhis are indistinguishable.

The much publicized visits to the poor by Rahul have led to many gush filled praises by those who find much virtue in such tokenism. It bothers none that Rahul's party pretty much has a monopoly on governance. His is the party that has been winning elections on empty slogans. 'Garibi hatao', 'Congress ka haath gareebon ke saath' are the pertinent ones. Yet India continues to have one of the largest population of absolutely poor people. The involvement of some of the most significant freedom fighters with the Congress and the continued rule of the party by the Gandhi family is still yielding dividends. And visits, such as the ones by Rahul, only reinforce that.

In a country - touted as the largest, most vibrant democracy - dynastic stranglehold on politics and governments is given a free pass. Debates, especially during the elections, are a telling example of how secular parties obfuscate issues. At the slightest hint of being evaluated on governance record, the discussion is hijacked into a communalism and secularism debate. Existential questions 'how can you not support secularism?' are posed. And with enough canards raised and reinforced by newsmen secular parties become the automatic choice.

And no effort is spared in retaining control. When popular mood turns contrary, discussing facial features resembling past leaders, invoking nostalgia are not out of bounds. Once that works, it is business as usual for the next term and the same facial features will only be invoked when needed next.

One only has to take an objective look at Indian politics, particularly the secular parties and their governance record, their continued dynastic dominance, the remarkable congruity in the views expressed by the media and it will be clear that secular indoctrination has worked.